Overland route no problem for Turn The Page N

Plainville, MA — After taking a predominantly overland route, Turn The Page N (Vincent) closed sharply to win her second top class harness racing pace for the ladies in the $25,000 feature at Plainridge Park on Tuesday (Aug. 13) afternoon.

Turn The Page N (Ron Cushing) got away sixth as The Panthiest A (Shawn Gray) seated Side Piece (Drew Monti) and rimmed Seaside Tina (Jay Randall) to the quarter in :26.1. With the top three in the same order moving to the half, Cushing tipped Turn The Page N to join the fray, second-over moving into turn two.

As the pace stiffened going to three-quarters, Seaside Tina began to fade, forcing Turn The Page N to go three-wide in the :27.2 panel. As they passed that marker and headed into the final bend, The Panthiest A and Turn The Page N were side by side and matching strides. The battle continued into the stretch, but Turn The Page N started to separate herself and eventually pulled away to a 1-¼ length lead at the light where she won in 1:51.1.

It was the fourth win of the year for Turn The Page N ($2.80) who is owned by her driver Cushing, in partnership with Kevin Sywyk. Carlos Rodriguez trains the winner.

TURN THE PAGE N REPLAY

In the $18,500 conditioned pace for 5-year-olds and under, Sweet Jeff IR (Sweet Lou) and driver Nick Graffam went right for the lead, marched off fractions of :28, :56.4 and 1:24.4 before turning for home to hold off ER Griffin (Brett Beckwith) and Maggie At Bat (Matty Athearn) and win in 1:52.3.

It was the sixth win of the meet for Sweet Jeff IR ($10.60) who continued his prominent position in the class as he has not missed the board in 15 starts at The Ridge this year. The Irish-bred is owned by Burke Racing and Weaver Bruscemi and is trained by Joe Nelson.

SWEET JEFF IR REPLAY

Drew Campbell was the leading driver on Tuesday winning three races on the card, while 11 different trainers each won one race apiece.

There was one lucky winner of the Wicked Hi-5 pentafecta in race nine. The single unique winning combination of 4-3-2-8-1 returned $4,486.54 for the 20-cent wager.

Live racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Thursday (Aug 15) with post time at 4 p.m.

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.

by Tim Bojarski, for the Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts